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Single-family homes in distressed areas are a hot asset right now for Wall Street investors, with some firms snapping up hundreds of homes a day. Some analysts worry that individual buyers are being crowded out of the market. "Lower-income Americans will lose their opportunity for the American dream of building wealth through owning a home," said Jack McCabe, a Florida real estate consultant.

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Crowdfunding sites are attracting investments from individuals who want to participate in real estate deals, including single-family homes, new developments and distressed mortgages. The Wall Street Journal estimates that the new platforms have raised more than $135 million in debt and equity for real estate deals.

Investors' rush to snap up distressed homes has sent monthly rents downward while asking prices are rising, according to online listing service Trulia. "Investors are buying homes, in part, to rent them out, and that has added a lot of rental supply, and that's preventing rents from rising," said Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist. "It means some investors will start to think about selling those single-family rentals."

Baby boomers who look to move out of large suburban single-family homes might not find many interested buyers, says researcher Arthur Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Research Center at the University of Utah. Younger generations are more interested in smaller homes and condos, and the growing numbers of Hispanics in the U.S. generally do not have incomes high enough to buy larger homes. The confluence of these demographic trends could prompt another housing crisis, Nelson says.

Sixty percent of people renting single-family homes want to own a home within five years, while 44% of people renting apartments want to own, finds a survey of renters by Opinion Research Corp. for Premier Property Management Group. The most popular reason that single-family home renters gave for not currently owning is that they enjoy renting. The top reason among apartment dwellers was "don't want to own." The survey also found that renters of single-family homes make more money and are more likely to have children than apartment renters.